Pathological Picture Taker Presents: "I See You!"

Connor's Crew

We walked in the second annual Children's Tumor Foundation NF Walk a couple of weeks ago.  There was a great turnout for Connor's Crew and I really had a great time!  Although I didn't fund-raise as much as the others - it makes me feel good to see so much support and awareness for the NF community.

Connor is in Maryland as we speak recovering from a 10 hour surgery - and when I talked to him the other night on the phone, he sounded really good.  He was a little skeptical that removing the staples wouldn't hurt like the Dr. said, and he had been out on a walk early in the day and saw some white tailed deer.  He wanted to talk to Joseph and just like always has such an affinity for the younger kids in our family.  He's a pretty cool little dude and I KNOW there are great things in store for him...not only in spite of this disease but maybe even because of it. Sometimes you have a life event that changes you so much or shapes who you are to the point that without it you may have been on a "normal" path, doing "normal" things and like Connor now, you evolve to surpass normal and become extraordinary.  The cool thing is that he gets to start practicing this while he is still young and has his whole dang life ahead of him to shine.

For anyone who needs to be caught up, Connor has a very rare disease called Neurofibromatosis II.  Non-malignant brain tumors grow on the auditory-vestibular nerve and the main treatment is surgical removal of them.  For those with NFII there are often visual problems.  There is no cure yet, but that is why we walk.  Connor has a team of doctors here in Dallas and is also a part of a study through the NIH in Maryland - where he is right now.  I know Connor's participation in the study is not in vain.

Cousin Jelena and her family came out to walk too!  I love this shot of us!

I made us some pennants for the walk and for Connor to hang on his wall afterward.  I wanted to make tons but after three my hand was seriously cramping.  So three it is!

I thought about taking a wagon for Joseph and next year I think I will.  He hung in there but out of hundreds of people, Josh, Joseph and Connor were dead last!

The event had face painting, snacks and food galore, a dj, raffle, a huge awesome playground, and so much good company.

Connor designed the shirts for our team and we all rallied around "Never Give Up!"...we can end NF together!

 

The forecast showed rain, but it held out and it was a wonderful day for a walk.  The park was really pretty and although it was supposed to be a 5k...the path wasn't marked clearly and I think we ended up only going 1.5 miles.  Ooops.  I gotta tell ya though, with ALLLL the kiddos there that day I'm not sure how many could have hung in for another 1.5.   

There was a huge turnout!

My sweetie!

Connor's poster in the pavilion. 

So in the meantime, we pray and hope and wait and love and play and hug each other up.  I know my family has never been one for taking health and happiness for granted and our little Connor is no exception.  Although we are all aware of the dark side, you can't dwell in the dark.  That's no place to live and it will make you crazy.  So instead we let the light shine on us and bathe in the rays of Connor's bright smile.

I never saw him smile so much as I have lately.

I think it's because everything is going to be ok. 

Swimming With the Fishes and Howling With the Monkeys!

The other day we felt the need for a little adventure.  Going pretty much anywhere with these two kids is an adventure, so does going into a really busy populated public place make us just plain crazy?  Well, I don't think so (they're actually quite well mannered...really!)....and there is nothing as cool as the Dallas World Aquarium when it comes to fun outings! 

This was Alaina's first time and she loved it.  The owner of this place really knows how to build a rainforest!  

These fishes really got her excited!  She jumped and pointed at them until we drug (dragged?) her away. 

All the animals were out putting on a show except for the jaguar - who's cage, by the way, contained some really gruesome leftovers of a fresh, raw lunch!! Agh!! 

But we got to see the main favorites -  monkeys,  the otters (super cute!), sharks, manatees and turtles.  I couldn't capture any good photos in the shark tunnel, but they are always a big hit.  We got Joseph a fossil shark tooth to add to his rock collection.  It's really old and really sharp.  The perfect thing to hand to a four year old boy.    

  

Our buddies lumbered gracefully through the water and mesmerized us. 

Hmmm.  Can you lumber gracefully?

Anyway, I would have given them a big hug if I could have.  They're cute. 

And as always...we stood here and wrapped our arms each other's waist and remembered that special day when we got married here.  I'll never tire of telling Joseph and Alaina that story as we stand in front of this beautiful aquarium.  A story from back when these heaven sent angels were nothing more than a gleam in our eye and we could sleep late on Saturday mornings.  And our house was quiet.  And clean.    

Then Alaina threw her empty snack cup at me grinning from ear to ear, Joseph ran circles around us chanting "cooties" and I snapped back into reality... 

Oh Manatee.  Maybe I'm the one lumbering gracefully.  

Getting Ready for Deacon

I know I don't have to tell you that I love a good party!  Especially a baby shower!  This one was no exception as Kristen, Casey and I got ready to shower Summer's new baby Deacon.  Casey made the sweet clotheline and Kristen made his name banner and the pom-poms. 

It worked out great to have three hostesses.  Since we all love to craft and make things, parties like this are perfect.  I tried my hand at my first diaper cake.  Now I'm still not sure about this, but it sounds like some people like to use cheap diapers with the expectation that the diaper cake will be kept assembled for the baby's room and the diapers won't be actually used.  My assumption was that it would be taken apart and the diapers used so I went for the soft, nice ones!

Luckily my costly wedding cake pedestal mistake (ie - forgot to take it back to the bakers after my wedding and they charged me for it) has been quite useful for events like this!  

I wanted it to be more plain and "classic", but once I got going...I couldn't stop too easily.  So I added bows here and animals there and big red painted D on top.  It turned out super cute and I quickly saw why people often don't disassemble theirs!

For the crafters out there:  the cake is about one large package of diapers all individually rolled. I liked this style the best out of various cakes I saw online. I didn't use a faux center (some people use a large glass bottle, like a champagne bottle) cause I didn't want to go buy one (how's that?!) and didn't really see the need since I had plenty of diapers.  I stuck a couple of dowel rods that I had on hand all the way through from top to bottom to hold it all together.     

Ha!...Casey added the 'Don't feel the animals' and it made me smile every time I walked by.  Summer's has decorated the baby's room in a jungle theme and we ran with that for the shower theme also.  It was a really great theme to use and we about had to enact a vote of congress to choose which of the bajillion cute invitations we were going to go with.  Darn you, Etsy!!!

 

I was totally tickled at the cute wrapped forks Casey made up!  Love the tulle and leopard ribbon!

My other task was the favors.  We went with caramel popcorn baggies as thank-you gifts as the guests each left.  Casey made the 'Deacon' basket for his room as a gift for Summer but it worked out perfectly as the popcorn basket during the shower!

And yes...I ate way more than my share of caramel popcorn while I was stuffing bags.  **Sorry Kristen and Casey.**  But I DID wash my hands and kept the kids clear of the assembling.  ;)

It wouldn't be in Summer's nature if she didn't supply us with some family photos!  ...some GREAT photos!  We displayed them all around the house and it was the perfect touch....really personalized the shower.

Kristen made the awesome banners, and let me tell you...that girl is a banner making fool!  She is the go-to girl when one is in need of a banner.

Casey made a scrapbook with question about the current times (price of gas, name of the president, current movies, etc) for each guest to fill out and then include a personal message to Deacon and Summer.  It was so sweet and a perfect activity for a shower where we didn't want to play games.  I had a blast coming up with a cute do-able palm tree idea to flank the table.  I got to get my hands dirty with real-live tools and spray paint.  And lucky me, I had everything already on hand except for the paint.  The picture here doesn't make them look like much, but in person they were pretty darn cute!  (yea...so if anyone needs to borrow a couple of palm trees....) 

Here's the money shot!  We are some fun-loving, party-hardy, shop-till-you-drop, baby-making besties!  I'm so glad I found these girls to share my life with and couldn't ask for better friends to welcome each other's babies into the world with.  (Good grief, please look past that crazy looking fat arm...what the heck is that all about?!)

So now we wait!!  Deacon will make his arrival next week and I can barely stand it!  I'm glad it's not me (heehee) and I'm so happy for Summer, Jason and big sis Ada-Grace.

And I must say, man his name monograms well!  What a handsome name he has.  So special, just like his mama. 

Pathological Picture Taker Presents: A Good Day to Chalk